Growing up, I only ate one kind of curry. But Thai curries are beautiful and numerous. Red, green, yellow, prik king, massaman and so many more. Mind. Blown.
I never realized how easy it was to make Thai curry until two of my close friends, Denise and Rocio showed me how to cook it. They invited me over and we had a curry party. Only in LA would you find a Mexican and Honduran teaching a Korean kid how to make Thai curry...Mind. Blown.
Here's my version of Thai Red Curry Linguini.
The characters:
1 medium onion
1-2 bell peppers (any color you want)
2 chicken thighs or breasts (skinless and boneless)
fish sauce
brown sugar
lemon
ginger
1 can of sliced bamboo (8oz)
1 can of coconut milk or cream
Thai Red Curry Paste
salt and pepper
red chili paste (optional)
First start with two chicken thighs or breasts. When Denise and Rocio taught me how to make this, they used dark meat. I usually use white breast meat because the Indian doesn't like dark meat, but most Asian dishes that call for chicken utilizes dark meat. So no matter what you decide to use, make sure you marinate your chicken first. I work with a lot of frozen chicken that is both skinless and boneless. I prefer to not have to handle raw chicken too much, but that's just me. If you're okay with it go for it.
I use kitchen scissors to cut away some of the fat and then cut into bite sized pieces.
Add about 1/4 cup of fish sauce over your chicken.
A word about fish sauce. If you've never used it before, you should be prepared for the shock of your life. It smells rotten and pungent all at the same time. NOT for the faint of heart. Literally. I'm really not trying to scare you, but this stuff is no joke. It's essentially fermented fish sauce. Super concentrated flavor.
Now, before you freak out, I would bet that you've eaten dishes with fish sauce and didn't even know it. Every Asian country has their own version of fish sauce. It's what makes dishes really pop with flavor. Vietnamese dipping sauces all have fish sauce in it. Koreans use fish sauce to flavor soups and side dishes. Believe me. You've had it. You just didn't know it. You've heard the Japanese word for fifth flavor, umami. It's a real thing. Well fish sauce is like that fifth flavor profile. Intensely savory. But intensely stinky too.
According to Wikipedia:
Southeast Asian fish sauce is often made from anchovies, salt and water, and is usually used in moderation because it is intensely flavoured.
One bottle will last you a really, really long time. I use this brand. I got it at the Korean Market. I think the stinkier the better. Blech. Just remember that when you use it, it might make you gag a little. That's ok. That means you have the good stuff. Have I scared you enough into thinking maybe you don't want to use it? Well, don't be scared because I guarantee you that if you skip using fish sauce, your curry will be flat and lack the flavor you were hoping for. Trust me.
To the fish sauce and chicken, add one heaping tablespoon of brown sugar.
Roll your lemon and using the palm of your hand press it down on the counter until its soft and then cut it in half. Rolling the lemon makes it easier to squeeze out the juice. I add the juice of an entire lemon.
Mix it all together and set aside. Far, far away. Just kidding.
Next, it's time to chop up your onion and bell peppers. You can use any color bell peppers. I like to use a combo of different colors because I like the way it looks. I used yellow, orange and green for this batch. I've also used just all one color too. Whatever you have works just fine.
I used one medium sized onion and about 2 bell peppers. I chose to cut them into strips, but you can dice them into squares too. I like strips for this recipe because I'm using it over linguine. If I am using this curry over rice, then I usually cut into squares. Just be sure to you cut everything the same size to ensure even cooking times.
How do you cut your bell pepper? I like to slice the sides and bottom off first.
Then you're left with this and you can just throw it away.
Slice into even pieces.
Now add all your onion and bell peppers into a heavy duty pot on medium low with about 1 tablespoon of oil. Olive oil is usually what I have one hand but you can use vegetable oil too. Salt and pepper your veggies now.
Drain the liquid from one can of sliced bamboo shoots.
Add bamboo in with your onions and peppers.
Take a piece of fresh ginger about half the size of your thumb.
Use your knife to peel off the skin.
Thinly slice your ginger.
Stack your ginger slices and cut into thin sticks.
Then turn ginger pieces and dice the other way. Work your knife over the ginger until you have finely minced ginger. You want your ginger to be super fine. Biting into a big piece of ginger is often intense and a little spicy.
Add your finely minced ginger into your pot and saute.
The smell at this point is divine.
But wait....it gets better.
Add one can of coconut milk to your pot.
Sometimes, when you open your can, it looks like this:
Don't be alarmed. It's just the coconut fats have solidified a bit. Just scrape it all off and add into your pot. If you want to go a bit lighter, you can use light coconut milk. Your curry won't be as creamy, but it still pretty good.
Our next step is to add the curry paste. I use this kind:
You can buy red curry paste at almost any supermarket. Thai Kitchen and Mae Ploy are pretty main stream and can be found at Ralph's or Von's. I like to go to a Thai market and buy my curry paste from there. But you don't have to. I'm really lucky because Thai Town is not that far of a drive for me and I think it's worth it. The more main stream brands seem a little muted down in flavor to me. Use whatever you can get.
I add a heaping spoonful of red curry paste into my pot.
Use a spoon to mix your curry paste and dissolve it into the coconut milk.
Make sure to break up all your curry paste so you are not left with any unmixed chunks of curry.
Remember your stinky chicken marinade? Time to throw that in now, too!
Add all of it. Fish sauce and lemon juice and everything.
This next step is optional. I add a bit of chili sauce because I like spicy. You don't have to.
Let the entire mixture simmer on medium-low for about 20-30 minutes.
In the meantime, cook your linguine or rice. I like to use linguine over any other kind of pasta. There's something about the broad, flat noodles that works well with this curry. I cook one entire 1 pound box of linguine.
And when using rice, I use Jasmine rice. It is divine. I love Jasmine. I can't help myself and I like to smell it as I'm eating it. The Indian says I look like I have OCD when I eat Jasmin rice....hmpfff.
If you don't have Jasmine rice that's okay, but be sure to use a long grain rice for this curry. Short grain gets mushy.
Spoon curry over rice or mix linguine directly into your curry. Garnish with chopped cilantro.
MMMM. mmmmm. mmmmm.
This recipe feeds about 6-8 people. Or just me.
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